Understanding Student Learning

Course Number

EDU 393W

Credits

2

Lab Hours

0

Lecture Hours

30

Course Description

Explores the process of learning and provides fuller understanding of the biological and sociocultural factors that influence human learning. Explores multiple intelligences and learning styles, neurological changes in the brain that accompany learning, cognitive development, motivation, and types of learning goals. Emphasizes the application of learning research to learning situations to encourage and enhance student learning. Credit may be earned in ED 393 or EDU 393 but not both. (30-0)

Outcomes and Objectives

Identify and explain the neurological and cognitive changes that accompany human learning.Objectives:

Explain the various ways in which the brain perceives and processes information.

Explain how lasting changes in the neurology of the brain accompany mastery.

Identify and use the principles of cognitive development to explain learning as a process of developing increasingly sophisticated mental representations of the world.

Identify, evaluate and assess how knowledge of cognitive processes is useful to educators, and how such knowledge can be applied to learning situations to enhance the learning process.

Identify and explain the primary factors that influence how human understandings are formed and altered.Objectives:

Identify biological factors such as temperament and emotional reactivity and explain how they can influence student learning.

Identify the various forms of intelligence (multiple intelligences), and explain how individual differences in intellectual potentials influences how an individual best learns.

Explain how a person's beliefs about their ability to succeed in a task (self-efficacy) and self-esteem influence student learning and success.

Explain how social and cultural factors such as social expectations, beliefs about ability (entity or incremental), learning styles, and the presence of social support influence student learning.

Identify, evaluate and appraise how knowledge of human learning can be applied to educational settings.Objectives:

Work individually and cooperatively with others to develop and implement methods of assessing students learning levels, styles, and needs.

Work individually and cooperatively to evaluate and synthesize relevant factors that influence student learning, and experiment in constructing learning tasks and environments to effectively meet the learning needs of students.